Funny. This article states that there is a sign on the door and another sign on the mirror in the restroom. It also says that an employee tried to
collect the $5 charge, but, the woman left without paying. I think that $5 is a bit much to use the restroom, but, that isn't the issue. The legal
term is "theft of services" and is no different than if you walk out of a store with $5 of merchandise that you didn't pay for. She's lucky that
she was only sent a bill.

It is only the same if one, the owner filed a complaint for theft, not have the sheriff illegally run the plate and give her the information that is
for official use only. Two, it is a service not merchandise. Makes a difference in criminal and civil. If someone stiffs you for service, all you can
do is sue them for it. Now if the sign said $5 for the paper, then it would be theft.

I manage a multimillion dollar retain store and can not tell you the amount of time I have come to find the women's' restrooms "defiled"... Now when I
say defiled, think of the worst thing you can think of and I am sure I have seen worse...
I have never subjected my staff to clean it up as I am the type of person that will do it myself and save the rest of my staff from doing it... let me
tell you, there has been some AMAZING "acts" performed there...

It got to a point that I shut the bathrooms off to the public, and having done such, have never had an issue since.

By law, in my state, we are only required to provide public restrooms if we have a certain amount of public shopping area, which we fall within 5'
of.. thankfully...

I do sympathize with the woman, but as a manager, I side with the company as I have seen the "darker" side of what can happen...

Not all people are like that, but the ones that are..... god help us all... Think "Dogma's Sh## Demon" for reference..... seriously...

From what I read there was no amount of charge on the sign, just a "customers only" message. So without any actual dollar amount shown there is no
way the restaurant could claim theft of service.

She should consider herself lucky though that there was no overzealous "rent a cop" on duty like the one in a Burger King in downtown Chicago some
years back. A woman went into the Burger King for lunch but since she had come a long distance without using a bathroom she went to the restroom
first. The rent a cop told her the restroom was for customers only and the lady explained that she was a customer but she had to use the restroom
first. he then proceeded to enter the bathroom at which time the rent a cop physically assaulted her and threw her to the floor and, if memory serves
me right, handcuffed her then called the police. To make a long story short, when the dust settled the lady walked away with a tidy settlement from
Burger King.

i understand the desire to have technology, cameras, databases, even satellites and phone surveillance equipment etc.used in law enforcement. in an
ideal world it works great but this is just another example of real world human beings abusing a position of authority. that "don't worry, i know a
guy" mentality. i hear people say "it's not for you, it's for terrorist/criminals" but the temptation to abuse it will always be there. no matter
how small it is human nature still creeps in.

Originally posted by MrSpad
This is a town with less than 1500 people. The question is if you put up a sign that says you charge X amount of dollars for a service and someone
uses this service and does not pay what are your options? Call the police and have them arrested? Have them tresspassed? Or in the case of a small
town a more off the record approach of writing them a letter. Places have the right to charge for whatever service they want and if you use that
service and do not pay then you do not get to walk away.

You could have a bathroom charge of a million dollars of you wanted to...but you CAN'T try to apply that charge retrospectively.

If there's a charge, it is required by consumer law to be clearly displayed and made known to the people who enter the premisis, if it isn't, it
can't be charged.

What are people supposed to do, guess the charge?

This is a pathetic shopkeeper, encouraging the abuse of police power, which apart from being a non criminal or legal issue, caused police time payed
for by the taxpayer to be wasted and had a Citizens civil liberties abused in the process...she was caught short and needed to relieve herself..it's
not a crime. If she'd have pulled down her knickers and squatted on his floor, that would have been a different story.

The shopkeeper needs a little common human decency, not getting his pal in the police to intimidate people.

Funny. This article states that there is a sign on the door and another sign on the mirror in the restroom. It also says that an employee tried to
collect the $5 charge, but, the woman left without paying. I think that $5 is a bit much to use the restroom, but, that isn't the issue. The legal
term is "theft of services" and is no different than if you walk out of a store with $5 of merchandise that you didn't pay for. She's lucky that
she was only sent a bill.

It is only the same if one, the owner filed a complaint for theft, not have the sheriff illegally run the plate and give her the information that is
for official use only. Two, it is a service not merchandise. Makes a difference in criminal and civil. If someone stiffs you for service, all you can
do is sue them for it. Now if the sign said $5 for the paper, then it would be theft.

Would it be theft of the paper though?

Technically, she didn't take the paper out of the shop...could flushing it away be classed as removing the paper considering the sewer pipe and
septic tank belong to the shop owner?

Would that make the sewer tank guy technically guilty of receiveing stolen goods when he pumps the tank out?

I'm not 100 percent sure but arn't sherrifs in US elected? If thats the case then there is a conflict of interest. By doing little favors for the
locals to ensure re election which is totally unethical and illegal.

Originally posted by Bilky
I'm not 100 percent sure but arn't sherrifs in US elected? If thats the case then there is a conflict of interest. By doing little favors for the
locals to ensure re election which is totally unethical and illegal.

I can remember when I stepped into a restaurant to use the restroom during a 4th of July parade. There was sign on the door that stated "Out of
Order," yet the restaurant was open. I went to use the restroom and an employee attempted to stop me. I stated to them that if they wanted to remain
open for business, they either needed to close until they had fresh, working facilities that were open to the general PUBLIC, or they needed to remove
the SIGN. You cannot refuse any member of the public access to restrooms, PERIOD! Turns out, the manager knew I was right and took down the sign (only
put up to reduce the traffic in and out of the restaurant during the parade...stupid anyway, because not very many people were going in and out just
to use the restrooms anyway).

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